Debian recommends the use of openjdk-6-jdk/openjdk-6-jre or openjdk-7-jdk/openjdk-7-jre which are packaged and available in all Debian flavours.

java-package provides the ability to build a Debian package from a Java binary distribution by running make-jpkg <java binary archive file> (with archive files downloaded from providers listed below). Should your interest be more on the development with Java under Debian, then follow the Java link. To learn more about the packaging of Java-written programs and libraries for Debian, see Teams/JavaPackaging.

The package includes the 'make-jpkg' command to do this. Typical usage consists in:

downloading one of the java binary archive listed below

invoking make-jpkg to build a Debian package from the downloaded archive

Configuration

By default the DebianAlternatives will automatically install the best version of Java as the default version. If the symlinks have been manually set they will be preserved by the tools. The update-alternatives tools try hard to respect explicit configuration from the local admin. Local manual symlinks appear to be an explicit configuration. In order to reset the alternative symlinks to their default value use the --auto option.

sudo update-alternatives --auto java

If you'd like to override the default to perhaps use a specific version then use --config and manually select the desired version.